This Day in History: the PotsdamConference
The final "Big Three" meeting between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britaintakes place towards the end of World War II. The decisions reached at the conference ostensibly settled many ofthe pressing issues between the three wartime allies, but the meeting was also marked by growing suspicionand tension between the United States and the SovietUnion.
On July 17, 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and BritishPrime Minister Winston Churchill met in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam to discuss issues relating to postwarEurope and plans to deal with the ongoing conflict with Japan. By the time the meeting began, U.S. andBritish suspicions concerning Soviet intentions in Europe were intensifying. Russian armies occupied most ofEastern Europe, including nearly half of Germany, and Stalin showed no inclination to remove his control ofthe region. Truman, who had only been president since Franklin D. Roosevelt died three months earlier, arrivedat the meeting determined to be "tough" with Stalin. He was encouraged in this course of action by newsthat American scientists had just successfully tested the atomic bomb. The conference soon bogged down onthe issue of postwar Germany. The Soviets wanted a united but disarmed Germany, with each of the Alliedpowers determining the destiny of the defeated power. Truman and his advisors, fearing the spread of Sovietinfluence over all Germany--and, by extension, all of western Europe--fought for and achieved an agreementwhereby each Allied power (including France) would administer a zone of occupation in Germany. Russianinfluence, therefore, would be limited to its own eastern zone. The United States also limited the amount ofreparations Russia could take from Germany. Discussion of the continuing Soviet occupation of Polandfloundered.
When the conference ended on August 2, 1945, matters stood much where they had before themeeting.
There would be no further wartime conferences. Four days after the conference concluded, the UnitedStates dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan; on August 9, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.World War II officially came to an end on August 14,1945.
Potsdam ConferenceExcerpt In the summer of 1945, the victors of World War II met outside of Berlin in Potsdam, Germany. JosephStalin, Harry S. Truman, and Clement Atlee, who replaced Winston Churchill during the talks, crafted thefinal document that would divide Germany and ensure that it would not pose a future military threat. Thisdivision, initially planned to be temporary, lasted until 1991.
The Berlin Conference of the Three Heads of Government of the U. S. S. R., U. S. A., and U. K., whichtook place from July 17 to August 2, 1945, came to the followingconclusions:
II.THE PRINCIPLES TO GOVERN THE TREATMENT OFGERMANY
A.POLITICALPRINCIPLES.
1.In accordance with the Agreement on Control Machinery in Germany, supreme authority in Germanyis exercised, on instructions from their respective Governments, by the Commanders-in-Chief of thearmed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,and the French Republic, each in his own zone of occupation, and also jointly, in matters affecting Germanyas a whole, in their capacity as members of the ControlCouncil.
2.So far as is practicable, there shall be uniformity of treatment of the German populationthroughout
Germany.
3.The purposes of the occupation of Germany by which the Control Council shall be guidedare:
(i)The complete disarmament and demilitarization of Germany and the elimination or control ofall German industry that could be used for military production. To theseends:-
(b) All arms, ammunition and implements of war and all specialized facilities fortheir production shall be held at the disposal of the Allies ordestroyed.
(ii)To convince the German people that they have suffered a total military defeat and that theycannot escape responsibility for what they have brought upon themselves, since their own ruthless warfareand the fanatical Nazi resistance have destroyed German economy and made chaos and sufferinginevitable.
(iii)To destroy the National Socialist Party and its affiliated and supervised organizations, todissolve all Nazi institutions, to ensure that they are not revived in any form, and to prevent all Naziand militarist activity orpropaganda.
(iv)To prepare for the eventual reconstruction of German political life on a democratic basis andfor eventual peaceful cooperation in international life byGermany.
4.All Nazi laws which provided the basis of the Hitler regime or established discriminations on groundsof race, creed, or political opinion shall beabolished.
5.War criminals and those who have participated in planning or carrying out Nazi enterprises involvingor resulting in atrocities or war crimes shall be arrested and brought tojudgment.
6.All members of the Nazi Party who have been more than nominal participants in its activities and allother persons hostile to Allied purposes shall be removed from public and semipublic office, and from positionsof responsibility in important private undertakings. Such persons shall be replaced by persons who, bytheir political and moral qualities, are deemed capable of assisting in developing genuine democratic institutionsin Germany.
7.German education shall be so controlled as completely to eliminate Nazi and militarist doctrines andto make possible the successful development of democraticideas.
8.The judicial system will be reorganized in accordance with the principles of democracy, of justiceunder law, and of equal rights for all citizens without distinction of race, nationality orreligion.
9.The administration in Germany should be directed towards the decentralization of the political structureand the development of local responsibility. To thisend:
(i)local self-government shall be restored throughout Germany on democratic principles andin particular through elective councils as rapidly as is consistent with military security and the purposesof militaryoccupation;
(ii)all democratic political parties with rights of assembly and of public discussion shall be allowedand encouraged throughoutGermany;
(iii)representative and elective principles shall be introduced into regional, provincial and state(Land) administration as rapidly as may be justified by the successful application of these principles inlocal self-government;
(iv)for the time being, no central German Government shall be established. Notwithstandingthis, however, certain essential central German administrative departments, headed by StateSecretaries, shall be established, particularly in the fields of finance, transport, communications, foreign tradeand industry.
10.Subject to the necessity for maintaining military security, freedom of speech, press and religion shallbe permitted, and religious institutions shall berespected.
B.ECONOMICPRINCIPLES.
11. In order to eliminate Germany's war potential, the production of arms, ammunition and implements ofwar as well as all types of aircraft and sea-going ships shall be prohibited and prevented. Production ofmetals, chemicals, machinery and other items that are directly necessary to a war economy shall be rigidlycontrolled and restricted to Germany's approved post-war peacetime needs to meet the objectives stated in Paragraph15. Productive capacity not needed for permitted production shall be removed in accordance with thereparations plan recommended by the Allied Commission on Reparations and approved by the Governments concernedor if not removed shall bedestroyed.
13. In organizing the German Economy, primary emphasis shall be given to the development of agricultureand peaceful domesticindustries.
15.Allied controls shall be imposed upon the German economy but only to the extentnecessary:
(a)to carry out programs of industrial disarmament, demilitarization, of reparations, and ofapproved exports andimports.
(b)to assure the production and maintenance of goods and services required to meet the needs ofthe occupying forces and displaced persons in Germany and essential to maintain in Germanyaverage living standards not exceeding the average of the standards of living of Europeancountries.
(c)to ensure in the manner determined by the Control Council the equitable distribution ofessential commodities between the several zones so as to produce a balanced economy throughout Germanyand reduce the need forimports.
(d)to control German industry and all economic and financial international transactionsincludingexports and imports, with the aim of preventing Germany from developing a war potential andof achieving the other objectives namedherein.
(e)to control all German public or private scientific bodies research and experimentalinstitutions, laboratories, et cetera connected with economicactivities.
19. Payment of Reparations should leave enough resources to enable the German people to subsistwithout externalassistance.
III.REPARATIONS FROMGERMANY.
1. Reparation claims of the U. S. S. R. shall be met by removals from the zone of Germany occupied by theU.
S. S. R., and from appropriate German externalassets.
3. The reparation claims of the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries entitled toreparations shall be met from the Western Zones and from appropriate German externalassets.
8.The Soviet Government renounces all claims in respect of reparations to shares of German enterpriseswhich are located in the Western Zones of Germany as well as to German foreign assets in all countries exceptthose specified in paragraph 9below.
9.The Governments of the U. K. and U. S. A. renounce all claims in respect of reparations to sharesof German enterprises which are located in the Eastern Zone of occupation in Germany, as well as toGerman foreign assets in Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Rumania and EasternAustria.